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A federal judge has determined Amazon workers at a Staten Island, New York, warehouse should not be granted a court order forcing the company to enhance its COVID-19 protections.
In their lawsuit, Amazon workers at the company’s JFK8 fulfillment center had alleged that Amazon failed to comply with New York law and state and federal health guidelines concerning the coronavirus pandemic.
Their complaint included claims of public nuisance, “breach of the duty to protect the health and safety of employees under New York Labor Law” and failure to pay earned wages in a timely manner, according to court documents.
In his order granting Amazon’s motion to dismiss the case, Judge Brian M. Cogan wrote that rather than pursue the issue through the courts, the plaintiffs should have taken their claims to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), according to Bloomberg.
On the public nuisance claim, Judge Cogan wrote that conduct causing the spread of a contagious disease can be classified as a public nuisance “if it violates the public’s right to health and safety.”
The plaintiffs had alleged that they were at an increased risk of contracting COVID-19 due to their work conditions, Judge Cogan wrote. However, he said, such injury is common in New York City.
“Plaintiffs and the public alike face varying levels of risk of exposing themselves and the people they live with to the virus,” he wrote. “Unlike the noxious landfill, a malarial pond, or a pigsty, JFK8 is not the source of COVID-19, emitting the virus from a single source into an otherwise healthy world.”
“The public at large cannot avoid COVID-19 simply by avoiding JFK8, its immediate surrounding area, and its employees,” and because the disease is suffered by the public at large, it is “not actionable in a private action for public nuisance.”
Judge Cogan also found that the Amazon workers’ claim that the company had breached its duty to maintain a safe workplace “does not conflict with an existing federal standard and the OSH Act’s savings clause expressly excludes statutory tort law claims from preemption.”
In addition, Judge Cogan found that the Amazon workers’ allegations based on past injury was barred by New York’s Workers’ Compensation Law.
He also ruled the Amazon workers also could not maintain their claims “based on the threat of contracting COVID-19 at JFK8” because “the threat of future harm does not provide a valid basis for a tort claim.”
Two of the Amazon workers also had claimed Amazon failed to pay earned wages in a timely manner because the company had failed to pay them COVID-19 leave in a timely way, and sought “an injunction against future untimely payments.”
Judge Cogan determined that paid sick leave doesn’t reflect a worker’s earnings for services rendered, but rather is a “benefit or wage supplement” — which is “expressly excepted from [New York labor law’s] requirement to timely pay wages.”
“I understand plaintiffs’ position that the purpose of New York’s COVID-19 leave law is to provide quarantined workers with guaranteed sick leave pay in a timely fashion,” Judge Cogan wrote. “The New York Legislature can fix this if it wants to. But it passed the COVID-19 leave law presumably well aware that sick leave is not covered by a private right of action” under New York statute.
“I have to enforce the law as its plain language compels, not as the Legislature might have worded it.”
The judge dismissed the Amazon workers’ public nuisance and worker safety claims without prejudice. The untimely payment claims have been dismissed with prejudice.
Are you an Amazon worker? Do you feel like the company has adequately protected its warehouse employees? Give us your thoughts in the comments below.
The plaintiffs are represented by Juno Turner, David H. Seligman and Valerie Collins of Towards Justice; Sienna Fontaine, Elizabeth Jordan and Frank Rankin Kearl of Made the Road New York; Karla Gilbride and Stephanie K. Glaberson of Public Justice; and Beth Ellen Terrell, Toby J. Marshall, Amanda M. Steiner and Blyth H. Chandler of Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC.
The Amazon Workers COVID-19 Protections Lawsuit is Derrick Palmer, et al. v. Amazon.com Inc., et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-02468-BMC, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
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3 thoughts onNY Amazon Warehouse Will Not Be Forced to Enhance COVID-19 Protections
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I fear retaliation but I am in the front lines and we have not stopped hiring nor do we temp check or require any incoming candidate to provide information. We administer oral drug swabs on site and each candidate has to remove their mask for a badge photo while a staff of 4 – 16 “coordinators” process anywhere from 70 – 240 candidates per day!! That’s 5-6 days per week! PPE is provided but there is no screening measures for incoming random applicants. My coworkers wife tested positive and he was told to come in and then he tested positive. They made 2 employees get tested and sent them home on PTO. I was quarantined in April and they still haven’t paid me the money from that time.
I DON’T WORK FOR AMAZON BUT I ORDER ITEMS FROM THIS COMPANY AT LEASE 3 TIMES PER WEEK. I HAVE A ISSUE IF COVID IS A PROBLEM THEN MY PURCHASES ARE ALSO A DAGER TO MY HEALTH. ADD MY NAME